By Ralphine Major

ralphine3@yahoo.com

“Do you remember when we took you to school?”  Dorothy asked.  I knew exactly what she meant.  It was on the last day of school—60 years ago!

The year was 1959.  Three girls were finishing eighth grade at Gibbs Junior High School.  Students Dorothy Stormer, Wanda Shaver, and Georgia Ann Major were planning something special.  I would have thought the trio of girls had plenty to occupy their time.  Summer vacation was just starting, and they would be entering their freshman year in high school the next time they were on the school campus.  Of course, there is always much to talk about in the way of latest fashions, hairstyles, boyfriends, and ballgames.  But, the three teenagers realized they had something in common:  they each had a niece.  Sometime during lunch, or perhaps after school, they came up with the idea to bring the nieces to school on the last day.

Dorothy’s niece was Sherry Lynn Stormer, her brother’s daughter.  I knew Sherry Lynn from church as she often came with her grandparents, Ross and Jeanette Stormer, to Fairview Baptist Church in Corryton.  Wanda’s niece was her sister’s daughter, Karen Shelby.  Karen was the youngest of the nieces by at least a year.  Georgia Ann was my father’s youngest sister.  On the big day, we all dressed in our Sunday best.  It was my first school bus ride before actually starting school.  The nieces were much too young to realize what a special moment the teenage aunts had created and one that would be treasured so many decades later.  (To be continued.)